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Winona Public Library

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Winona Public Library

Winona Public Library, front elevation view. Photograph by Wikimedia user McGhiever, 2017.

In 1897, lumberman William Harris Laird offered to fund the designing and building of a library for the city of Winona. Two years later he presented this Classical Revival building to the library board. It is the oldest building in Minnesota built as a public library that continues to fulfill that function in the present day.

In 1863, the Young Men’s Library Association established a lending library in Winona. Ten years later it was reorganized as the Winona Library Association, acknowledging the large role that women had played in maintaining the library. Like other early Minnesota libraries, it was a private “subscription” library funded by membership fees and fundraising events.

Meanwhile, advocates for public, tax-supported libraries lobbied state legislatures to pass laws authorizing cities to create public libraries. Minnesota did this in 1879, and the Winona city council created the Winona Free Public Library in 1886. The Winona Library Association turned over its books and furnishings to the new public library. The new library board, however, could not persuade the city to build a library. The new public library had to make do with a drafty former school house.

Then came what the local newspaper called the “sweet surprise.” In 1897, William Harris Laird, one of the three partners of the Laird Norton Company (the most successful of the lumber companies along Winona’s riverfront) offered to build the city a $40,000 library. He hired two Philadelphia architects, one of whom was his nephew Warren Powers Laird, to design the building. His only conditions were that the city provide a site and add a new tax to maintain the library. The city quickly agreed.

Typical of its times, the library was a Classical Revival building with symmetrical facades. Patrons entered its first floor by climbing a dramatic staircase to a gabled entrance portico flanked by marble columns. Inside, they found themselves in an exchange room topped by a grand art glass dome. The reading rooms featured elaborate oak millwork, including columns, cornices, and arches. There was a large lecture hall in the basement. Two rooms were set aside for art galleries, and a permanent collection of painting and sculpture was planned. A separate wing contained iron book stacks divided into three levels, each with glass floors to allow natural light to filter through the shelves.

In the end, Laird donated over $55,000 to finance the building, in part because he bowed to his nephew’s desire to build the finest building possible. Warren Powers Laird’s work was well received, and later he was hired to design the Winona Masonic Temple.

The Winona library is easily mistaken for a “Carnegie library” because most of the sixty-five public libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie in Minnesota were Classical Revival buildings. In fact, Laird decided to make his gift to Winona two years before the first Carnegie library grant in Minnesota. However, Laird may have been influenced by Carnegie’s 1889 “Gospel of Wealth” articles, which urged the rich to give away their fortunes before they died, especially to libraries.

William Hayes hired Kenyon Cox to paint the “Light of Learning” mural in a lunette of the library’s dome. The mural was in memory of his deceased wife, Charlotte Prentiss Hayes, who had supported the library as a volunteer, board member, and librarian from the 1870s until her death in 1910. A nationally known muralist, Cox had recently completed a mural in the Minnesota State Capitol. William Harris Laird died the same year, and his family continued his legacy by funding the expansion of the stacks wing in 1914.

Over the decades, the number of people served by the library grew, as did the kinds of services offered. As early as 1921, for example, the library created a separate children’s department, which resulted in the loss of the lecture hall. In 1985, the need for more space and handicapped accessibility resulted in a plan to build a new library. Voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea, and the following year they approved a proposal to add a new accessible entrance and an elevator to the historic library.

After more than a century, the building that Laird gave Winona stands as a remarkable example of civic-minded philanthropy and neo-classical architecture.

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Bertrang, Betsy Russell. “Voters Say No to Library.” Winona Daily News, November 6, 1985.

Butweiler, Joe. “Voters OK $1.36 Million Bond sale.” Winona Daily News, November 5, 1986.

Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. A History of Winona County, Minnesota. Chicago: H. C. Cooper Jr. and Co., 1913.

“Formal Transfer Made: Mr. W. H. Laird Presents New Library to the City.” Winona Daily Republican, January 21, 1899.

Gaut, Greg. Laird’s Legacy: A History of the Winona Public Library. Winona, MN: Friends of the Winona Public Library, 2016.

Kohlmeyer, Fred W. Timber Roots: The Laird, Norton Story, 1855‒1905. Winona: Winona County Historical Society, 1972.

Laird, Norton Company corporate records
Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00331.xml
Description: Includes extensive correspondence between William Harris Laird, Frederick Bell, Edgar V. Seeler, and Warren Powers Laird on the planning, design, and construction of the Winona Public Library. See Box 17 (145.I.11.9B).

“Mr. Laird’s Offer Promptly Accepted.” Winona Daily Republican, February 9, 1897.

“Mr. Laird’s Gift to the City.” Winona Daily Republican, January 21, 1899.

“A Munificent Offer.” Winona Daily Republican, February 8, 1897.

Winona Public Library Archives
Includes the journals “Proceedings of the Young Men’s Library Association” and “Record of Proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Winona Free Public Library” as well as various annual reports, librarian examinations, and other materials. Many of these items can be viewed on Minnesota Reflections (https://reflections.mndigital.org).

Related Images

Winona Public Library
Winona Public Library
Winona Public Library
Winona Public Library
Winona Public Library
Winona Public Library
Exchange room inside the Winona Public Library
Exchange room inside the Winona Public Library
William Harris Laird
William Harris Laird
Dome of the Winona Public Library
Dome of the Winona Public Library
“Light of Learning” Mural
“Light of Learning” Mural
Plaque above the main entrance of Winona Public Library
Plaque above the main entrance of Winona Public Library
Winona Library Public Stacks
Winona Library Public Stacks
Winona Public Library Accessible Entrance
Winona Public Library Accessible Entrance

Turning Point

On February 6, 1897, lumberman William Harris Laird offers to build a library for Winona based on the Classical Revival design of two Philadelphia architects.

Chronology

1863

The Young Men’s Library Association, later the Winona Library Association, is organized in Winona. Its members create a private, subscription-supported library in rented space.

1877

Temporarily closed for financial reasons, three women, including Charlotte Prentiss Hayes, revive the Winona Library Association.

1886

The City of Winona creates a tax-supported, public library. The Winona Library Association turns over its books and furnishings to the new Winona Free Public Library.

1888

The city council refuses to fund a new library building, but agrees to give the library board the deed to the dilapidated former school building that houses the public library.

1897

Lumberman William Harris Laird sends a letter to the library board offering to build a library for Winona on condition that the city provide a site and increase taxes to maintain the new building. The city council quickly accepts his conditions.

1899

The new library, designed by Warren Powers Laird and Edgar V. Seeler, is presented to the city of Winona in a simple ceremony.

1910

William Hayes hires Kenyon Cox to paint the “Light of Learning” mural in a lunette of the library’s dome. He dedicates it to his late wife, Charlotte Prentiss Hayes, who served the library as a librarian, board member, and volunteer.

1914

Although William Harris Laird had died, his family continues his commitment to the library by funding the expansion of the stack wing of the library.

1921

A children’s department opens in the former lecture hall of the library.

1936

Jeanette Clark retires after managing the library for fifty years.

1977

The Winona Public Library is listed on the National Register Historic Places.

1985

The city council asks voters to approve a bond referendum to build a new library. The voters overwhelmingly reject the proposal.

1986

The council puts before voters a bond referendum to remodel the library. This bond is approved.

1989

Work is completed on a new addition which includes a street level accessible entrance and an elevator.

2001

The Winona city council approves the Heritage Preservation Commission’s designation of the library as a local historic landmark.